NFL Draft 2021: Top 5 LA Rams prospects from MAC

Offensive center

The first stop in this bus route heading toward the 2021 NFL Daft is the offensive center from Wisconsin-Whitewater that everyone is talking about. He is Quinn Meinerz (6.31-grade per NFL.com)

Okay, so UW-Whitewater is technically a member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), and that’s definitely not a household-name football conference. So if we add Quinn Meinerz to this conference, we can legitimize the inclusion here on the basis of geographic proximity.

Meinerz was off everyone’s radar. . .. until the Senior Bowl this year, where his exceptional play catapulted his name onto the national spotlight and everyone’s mock drafts. His performance in Mobile solidified his stock as a small-school prospect with big-school upside.  And that’s the waters the Rams like to fish in.

We already know he has piqued the Rams’ interest already because they’ve held a pre-draft Zoom meeting with him. You know it’s getting serious when the LA Rams made certain that new offensive line coach Kevin Carberry was present during one of those meetings. That’s kinda’ how things have to be done this year – with technology, thanks to Covid.

He’s a 6-foot-3, 320-pound Division III prospect who played mostly guard in college and didn’t play in 2020  at all due to the cancellation of his conference’s football last season. But he dominated in 2019.

He actually spent the months he was supposed to be playing football in his Wisconsin backyard, practicing the technique and footwork of a center because that’s where he thinks he can play in the NFL. Here’s his YouTube page post showcasing his reps (It also shows him Hercules-ing big cylinders up steps (at 0:30) and pushing over trees and stuff I guess they do for fun in upper Wisconsin. (At 1:06) Outta my way, tree!

Minerz earns bonus points from me for the originality of a highlight reel. It’s not the Combine or a Pro Day, but it’s some impressive measurables, nevertheless. He’s definitely got the suits in NFL personnel offices all excited.